Compensation

1 year/$0.2M (2000). Signed by Atlanta as a free agent 1/28/00. Released by Atlanta 10/31/00.

4 years/$23.3M (1997-2000). Signed by Florida as a free agent 11/23/96. 97:$5.6M, 98:$5.9M, 99:$5.9M, 00:$5.9M. Acquired by LA Dodgers in trade from Florida 5/14/98. Acquired by NY Mets in trade from LA Dodgers 11/11/98. Released by NY Mets 1/3/00, with $5.9M remaining on the contract. Bonilla agreed to defer payment, with interest, for 11 years ($1,193,248.20 every July 1 for 2011-35, for a total of $29.8 million).

5 years/$29M (1992-96). Signed by NY Mets as a free agent 12/2/91. At signing, AAV of $5.8M was highest in baseball history. $1.5M signing bonus. 92:$5.5M, 93:$5.6M, 94:$5.7M, 95:$4.7M, 96:$4.5M. Assignment bonus: $0.2M if traded. Award bonuses: $0.1M for top-three finish in MVP vote ($0.25M for a second top-three finish, $1M for a third, $2M for a fourth). Guarantee of $1.5M in commercial endorsements, with Mets picking up the difference if endorsement offers do not reach that amount. Acquired by Baltimore in trade from NY Mets 7/28/95.

BP Chats

Hi Maury,
With the massive amount of debt the Wilpons have, combined with Irving Picard saying they have a very limited cash flow in his settlement reasoning, is there any chance they are forced to sell the Mets in the future?(Tony from Queens )

I’ve been saying this for some time, but I don’t see them selling. This deal yesterday with Jason Bay shows that there’s more than one way to get creative (albeit, you’d think they would have learned with the Bobby Bonilla contract that deferring compensation past the time the player is with the club is really messing with payroll flexibility). The point is, I think that part of the deal with Bay is to free up some payroll space to potentially use in negotiations to extend David Wright and/or R.A. Dickey. That means, the club isn’t really in “selling mode” at the moment, even under all the heavy debt weight. (Maury Brown)

Your take on the Furcal snafu with the Braves and the Dodgers? Congratulations, by the way.(abernethyj from Chapel Hill, NC)

In some ways, this reminds me of what I remember happening with Bobby Bonilla during his free agency after 1991, in that he shopped an offer until he found someone who could top it; at that time, I think there was concern that the Phillies actually hadn't offered Bonilla the money his representation told the Mets he'd been offered, and that got him a deal the Mets overpaid on while leaving the Phillies a bit miffed. So, the Braves won't deal with this particular agent ever again--so? (Christina Kahrl)